Arguing with online retailer - am I in the right?

wealdroam

deaston wrote: »

So, the seller has gone completely quiet and hasn't refunded me anything yet. How long do I wait until I start taking things further? And what should be my first course of action?

The seller has already told you that you won't be hearing from him for some time - he's 'gathering evidence'.

Follow the advice in neilmcl's latest post.

deaston

wealdroam wrote: »

The seller has already told you that you won't be hearing from him for some time - he's 'gathering evidence'.

Follow the advice in neilmcl's latest post.

But I told him I wanted a refund within three days. How come you're saying I have to abide by his "28 days to gather evidence" but he doesn't have to abide by my "refund within three days"?

BykerSands

deaston wrote: »

But I told him I wanted a refund within three days. How come you're saying I have to abide by his "28 days to gather evidence" but he doesn't have to abide by my "refund within three days"?

Therefore follow the advice you've been given and write a LBA.

daytona0

deaston wrote: »

But I told him I wanted a refund within three days. How come you're saying I have to abide by his "28 days to gather evidence" but he doesn't have to abide by my "refund within three days"?

The user you quoted didn't say anything like that. They said:

- You aren't hearing from the seller now because they are gathering evidence.

- To read another user's advice about sending a letter before action.

You don't have to abide by the 28 days to investigate which is why you can start court proceedings firstly with a letter before action. You'll ironically have to give them about 28 days (maybe less) to respond to that letter! IF they don't, take it to court.

Also, 3 days for a refund in this case is unreasonable.

wealdroam

deaston wrote: »

But I told him I wanted a refund within three days. How come you're saying I have to abide by his "28 days to gather evidence" but he doesn't have to abide by my "refund within three days"?

Do what you think best then. Good luck.

naedanger

deaston wrote: »

But I told him I wanted a refund within three days. How come you're saying I have to abide by his "28 days to gather evidence" but he doesn't have to abide by my "refund within three days"?

Post number 34 stated:

"Have you reminded him that under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 he has 14 days from receiving your cancellation to issue a refund?"

I suggest you follow that post's suggestion. In other words write (either by email or letter - with proof of posting) to the supplier telling them the date by which they must - under the CCRs - provide your refund.

Then if you have not been paid by the specified date (plus a couple of days to allow for the possibility the refund is in the post), at that point send a letter before action. In that letter give them a further 14 [edited from 7, given the information in post 88] days to get payment to you otherwise you will take legal action.

My view is that these timescales are appropriate - i.e. reasonable to the supplier but not too lenient.

unholyangel

naedanger wrote: »

Post number 34 stated:

"Have you reminded him that under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 he has 14 days from receiving your cancellation to issue a refund?"

I suggest you follow that post's suggestion. In other words write (either by email or letter - with proof of posting) to the supplier telling them the date by which they must - under the CCRs - provide your refund.

Then if you have not been paid by the specified date (plus a couple of days to allow for the possibility the refund is in the post), at that point send a letter before action. In that letter give them a further 7 days to get payment to you otherwise you will take legal action.

My view is that these timescales are appropriate - i.e. reasonable to the supplier but not too lenient.

Only thing I'd add on is that the civil procedure pre-action protocol rules stipulate that 14 days should be allowed (for the retailer to respond) in simple cases and up to 3 months for complex cases.

Following the civil procedure rules is important. You could also ask the retailer if they are a member of an ADR scheme or whether they would be willing to enter into ADR to avoid legal proceedings.

Altarf

The supplier seems to be the usual sort of amateur business that is completely unaware of the law, and is just making things up as they go along.

The OP isn't returning goods as they never received them, because the supplier failed to deliver (the phone number issue is irrelevant).

They are cancelling their order. As the delivery cost is free (apart from the £10 extra) and their T&Cs don't specify a fee for getting their goods back, then they can't charge the OP for the failed delivery.

If the OP paid with a credit card, I would stop messing around with the supplier and just make a claim from the card company.

deaston

For anyone interested, I got this email today:

"We have received conformation [sic] that delivery was attempted after the 5:30pm cut off time and therefore the delivery company has failed to deliver on time.
They will not be charging us for the delivery or the return of the goods.

You are entitled to a full refund and the money will be refunded tomorrow.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused."

It's a shame the retailer took such a hard line so early on. What happened to the adage "The customer is always right"? Had he been more helpful and apologetic from the beginning rather than instantly blaming me, he might not have lost me as a customer. At £200 for a load of logs, he's lost thousands of pound of business.

bod1467

But the customer is not always right. (Albeit you were in this case).

What matters is how issues are handled ... in this case the supplier got it badly wrong; they could easily have provided a neutral response early on to buy time to get all the facts, but they chose to rise to the bait of your initial claim.